From September 11 to 20, 2020, the “Media Advocate” Initiative followed online media reports on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s personality and activities. 5 news agencies were monitored: hetq.am, azatutyun.am, armtimes.com, yerkir.am and hraparak.am.
According to the monitoring, 285 articles were published on 5 selected websites regarding Nikol Pashinyan. 88 articles of which were negative, 7 were positive and 190 were neutral.
A large number of negative articles were published on RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The press, referring to the Artsakh issue, wrote: “In terms of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, as someone from Karabakh, as a person who carried the burden of the liberation war on his shoulders, Kocharyan never retreated from the idea of independence of the Artsakh Republic, more or less implementing it. “Pashinyan decided from the very beginning to nullify all the work done by the previous authorities, establishing some ties with Ilham Aliyev, which, as it turned out later, were ineffective.”
Marina Khachatryan, referring to the tenure of the Prime Minister, wrote an open letter, in which, she particularly, mentioned: “Mr. Pashinyan, from the day you came to power, it was obvious to me that you would bring chaos, filth, misery and destruction to Armenia. What can I do, I am both informed and I have good analytical skills, and you may even envy my intuition.”
Arpine Hovhannisyan, Head of the “Legal Education and Control” NGO, also referred to Nikol Pashinyan: “Pashinyan is the embodiment of everything he criticizes, whenever you notice his endless lies, you will immediately be considered a traitor, a slave of the former regime, the more seniles will make you betrayal, disloyal, treacherous and similar things, fakes will chew you out under the comments of all media outlet, you will receive threat letters, your relatives will receive “friendly” warnings and you will have no choice but to relaize that it is more convenient, easy and safe not to be disappointed by these characters.”
From 132 articles published in hraparak.am, 58 were negative, 5 were positive and 69 were neutral.
Marina Khachatryan’s open letter and Arpine Hovhannisyan’s remark were published by the news outlet.
The news outlet, referring to the judiciary, wrote: “One of the manifestations of the short-sighted personnel policy in that sphere is the “Professional Commission for Constitutional Reforms” set up by Pashinyan in February, in particular, the fact of including Daniel Ioannisyan in it, a citizen who is far from constitutional science and law in general, as far as he is far from being a physicist.”
Political technologist Karen Kocharyan, referring to one of Nikol Pashinyan’s Facebook posts, noted: “Nikol Pashinyan wrote a status today and asked the media to title it as “Determination to make a mistake – the right way.” Dear Mr. Pashinyan, there is no infallible person, making mistakes is for an individual (though during the last two years you have repeatedly, willy-nilly, compared yourself to Christ and God). The problem is not even making mistakes. In your letter you are trying to convince everyone that only due to those “mistakes” it was possible to do what happened in April-May 2018. No one discusses whether it was good or bad, right or wrong. You were right at that time, at least for the simple reason that “winners are not judged.” The problem is that you are still left in 2018, similar to the actors who fail to leave their characters.”
The news outlet also referred to Nikol Pashinyan’s reference to Arayik Harutyunyan and wrote: “It all started with Arayik Harutyunyan’s speech, where he violated inadmissible red lines, emphasizing Gagik Tsarukyan from the huge army of his critics and recalling his past. Today, Nikol Pashinyan defended his minister, deepening the low-level discourse and moving the issue to the field of boyish fight. And so it went on” …
Gevorg Tamamyan, head of the Center of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology of Armenia, has withdrawn his resignation. It should be reminded that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed the Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan to extend employment contract with the head of Hematology Center after prof. Yolyan. Tamamyan posted a video and commented: “I am proud and happy to work in such a team! For the sake of our state, for the sake of our children.”
The press, referring to the “My Step” alliance, wrote: “It is an obvious truth that the “My Step” alliance is a spontaneous collection of people rejecting “isms”, which has no ideology. It exists only due to Nikol Pashinyan’s influence and authority.”
From 132 articles published in yerkir.am, 29 were negative, 0 was positive and 103 were neutral.
Arpine Hovhannisyan’s remark was published in the media outlet.
Facebook user Narek Mirzoyan’s Facebook post, in which he referred to the spread of coronavirus in Shirak State University High School, was published on the website: “The most recent example I can present refers to the high school of Shirak State University. Teachers have been attending school for several days now, but have not yet been tested (the approximate test dates are unknown either, maybe they will be carried out even a month later), and during that time, according to verified information, about 9 teachers from the school staff have symptoms, and few of them have tested positively. By the way, they went to work, which makes us conclude that almost the whole staff of the school and students has been in contact. Of course, we all understand that the main culprit of the disgraceful situation and permissiveness prevailing in this country is Nikol Pashinyan and his “smart” team.”
One of the analyzes published on the news agency refers to the internal political situation in Armenia: “For several days now, a war of “rapists” and “madmen” has been going on in the political field of Armenia. Instead of working, making real reforms, discussing the opposition’s criticisms in a constructive atmosphere, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan decided to show “master classes” of snubbing and insulting his political opponents. It all started with the discussion of the demand of “Bright Armenia” for the resignation of the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Arayik Harutyunyan, during which the topic of controversial educational standards was raised. Minister Arayik Harutyunyan decided to dedicate his final speech to PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan, targeting only the latter from the large army of his critics.”
According to the article published on the news outlet, the Armenian government, which is facing serious financial and economic difficulties due to the coronavirus, last month allocated a large sum of money to paint the only government plane “Airbus A319” serving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. NEWS.am found out that the new look of the government “Number One” plane cost the state more than 210,000 euros (about 250,000 US dollars). It is only about marking the national (flag, coat of arms) and registration marks on the aircraft. The government plane was painted this August by the Czech company International Aerospace Coatings (IAC), which is one of the world leaders in the field of service of both private and government aircraft.
From 30 articles published in azatutyun.am, 1 was negative, 1 was positive and 28 were neutral.
The news agency covered the process around the Hematology Center, titled as follows: “The tenure of the Head of the Hematology Center will continue due to the instruction of the Prime Minister.”
The media outlet referred to Daniel Ioannisyan’s comment on Pashinyan’s assertion that those speak of revolutionary values who learned about the revolution after May 8. Ioannisyan reminds that today there are many people in the ruling force who were a part of Serzh Sargsyan’s government during the days of the revolution or had nothing to do with revolution at all. While today among the critics of the Constitutional Court are people who were the faces of the revolution, they started their struggle for human rights much earlier, they have more right to speak about the values of the revolution than many of “My Step” deputies.
From 28 articles published in hetq.am, 0 was negative, 0 was positive and 28 were neutral.
From 14 articles published in armtimes.com, 0 was negative, 1 was positive and 13 were neutral.
The publication was prepared with the support of “Hayrenik” Development Foundation
